Spatial Cognition & Navigation - is concerned with how animals find, remember, and navigate to places, and how they recognize objects and scenes. Researchers in comparative cognition study spatial processes in animals ranging from insects to humans.

Learning & Memory - explores how behavior is changed by experience and how organisms represent and retain environmental information.

Communication & Aggression - explores signals used between animals. Often animals have conflicting interests with each other, yet seem to communicate cooperatively even when threatening each other.

Songbird Neuroethology - deals with songbird vocal production and perception. Researchers are interested in mechanisms of vocal production and perception, along with the effects of the early acoustic environment on adult vocal production/perception, and underlying neural substrates.